Troubleshoot common issues

The effect isn't showing at all

• Check the page. Docs Dimmer only runs on docs.google.com. It won't do anything on Gmail, Drive, the Google Docs home screen, or other sites.
• Check the on/off toggle. Open the popup and make sure the effect is switched on — it may have been paused.
• Check the dimming level. If both sliders are at zero and dark mode is off, there's nothing to see. Nudge the dimming slider up.
• Reload the document. If you installed or updated the extension while a document was already open, refresh the tab so the content script loads.

One editor dims but another doesn't

That's almost always the Apply to selector. Open the popup and make sure the editor you're in — Docs, Sheets, or Slides — is ticked. See Choose which editors are affected for details.

Images look like negatives in dark mode

This is expected. Dark mode works by inverting the document's colours, so embedded images, charts, and other picture content get inverted too. If a document is image-heavy, turn dark mode off and use the dimming and warmth sliders instead.

My settings didn't follow me to another computer

Settings sync through your Chrome profile, so you need to be signed in to the same profile with sync enabled on both machines. Sync can also take a moment to propagate — give it a few seconds and reopen the document.

Start from a clean state

If things look off, the fastest reset is the Reset button in the popup, which returns dimming, warmth, dark mode, and the editor selection to their defaults — see Pause it & reset to defaults. If that doesn't help, removing and re-adding the extension clears its stored settings entirely.

Still stuck?

If none of these fix it, tell us what's happening — include your browser and whether you're in Docs, Sheets, or Slides, and we'll help you sort it out.

Related guides

Curious what runs where? See Privacy & permissions. New to the extension? Start with What Docs Dimmer does.